“Have you found anything interesting?” she asked, squatting down to one side of him.
“I’m helping Jack unearth this Valtegan soldier,” he said. “Bits of his kit and uniform are still here so he wants me to try and get them out without damaging them.”
“How different are they from the ones that were on Keiss? Do they have more primitive weapons, or are they like the ones we use now?”
“Difficult to tell,” said Dzaka. “The weapons we’ve found have been badly eroded by the dampness in the cavern.”
“Dzaka! Can you come over here a moment, please?” Jack called out.
“Excuse me,” said Dzaka, getting to his feet and turning abruptly away from her.
Kitra stood up and reached out to grasp him by the arm. “Dzaka, what’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he said, keeping his head turned away from her as he gently tried to ease himself free. “Jack wants me, Kitra.”
She refused to be moved. “I know there’s something wrong,” she said. “What is it?”
Dzaka could feel her concern. Unless he was prepared to hurt her, he had to say something. Schooling his mind to stillness, he lifted his head, looking directly at her for the first time that day. “Nothing’s wrong, Kitra.”
She gave a little gasp and reached out to touch the cut on his cheek. “What happened to you?”
He intercepted her hand. “Don’t touch it, please. It hurts,” he said. “I fell over something in the dark on my way home last night, that’s all.”
“It looks painful,” she said sympathetically.
“A bit,” he said, letting her hand go. “Now I must see what Jack wants.”
“I’m coming too,” she said.
He hesitated. If he didn’t let her come, then the cowards who’d attacked him on his way home the night before had won. “If you want,” he said.
“Hello, young lady,” said Jack, beaming at Kitra as she and Dzaka approached the table he was using. Spread out on it were what looked like assorted lumps of earth. With the help of a small directional lamp and a rigidly supported magnifying lens, he was examining one of those pieces.
“I think this might be some kind of weapon. Come and see what you think,” he said, pushing his chair back so Dzaka could get in.
Dzaka squeezed past him and peered through the lens at the object. Jack had managed to clean most of the soil from it, and some areas of small detail were visible. It was roughly rectangular, with various ridged markings on the face. There were the remains of what could be terminals at one end.
“More likely some kind of power pack,” Dzaka said. “It’s not like any I’ve come across, but that’s my best guess. Where did you find it?”
“Actually, I found it,” said a voice with a distinctive Human pronunciation to the words.
Dzaka looked up to see Mara standing in front of the table. “It was in one of the vehicles.” She turned and pointed to a mass of crumpled wreckage not far from the entrance to the upper level.
“Can I have a look, please, Jack?” asked Kitra.
Dzaka moved aside to let her see.
“Of course, Kitra. Mara, keep with that vehicle and see if you can find any more of these,” said Jack. “Better still, see if you can find what it fits into.”
“Sure. Want to come and help me, Dzaka?” she said, looking over at him. “I can see where there’s more of those, but some pieces of wreckage are in the way. I need them moved.”
“I’m rather busy myself, Mara,” said Dzaka, coming out from behind Jack’s desk. “Why not get one of the others to help you?”
“They’re all busy. I’m sure Kitra wouldn’t mind finishing off what you’re doing, would you, Kitra?” she said, smiling briefly at her. “I can’t go any further until someone strong like you lifts those pieces out of my way.”
Dzaka caught Jack peering over the top of his glasses at Mara, eyebrows lifted in surprise, before he glanced back at him.
He could feel Kitra’s resentment of the Human female until she remembered to block it. Caught between the two of them, he compromised. “I’ll lift the wreckage for you, Mara, but then I must go back to my own find. It’s a little too delicate to leave to anyone else.”
Mara linked her arm through his, drawing him away from the table. “Well, this type of work isn’t for children,” she said, her voice drifting behind her as they walked. “When she’s older, I’m sure Kitra will be able to do delicate work too. You shouldn’t really encourage her, Dzaka. It’s not good for her to think she’s more adult than she is.”
Kitra realized Jack was looking at her and, swallowing her disappointment, she looked up. “Have you something I can be doing while Dzaka’s helping Mara?”
Jack pushed his glasses back up his nose. “Actually, I have,” he said, reaching down into a box that lay under the table. He pulled out a brush and trowel. “It’s about time you had your own tools, Kitra, especially since you’re helping out so often.” He handed them to her. “How about you start working at the other end of Dzaka’s skeleton? It’ll be finished in half the time then, won’t it?”
“All right,” she said, accepting them without much enthusiasm. Not even Jack acknowledging her unofficial help by giving her her own tools could dispel the little cloud of gloom that had suddenly descended on her. As she turned away, Jack called out to her again.
“You make a start and before you know it, he’ll be back,” he said, keeping his voice low.
She nodded and went back to where Dzaka had been working.
*
Mara stood watching while Dzaka sat on his haunches examining the crumpled pieces of metal, trying to see where they overlapped or were crushed together. Making his mind up, he began to separate two of them.
As he pulled one piece free, he gave a yip of annoyance when a sharp edge of the metal cut into one of his fingers. Throwing the offending piece aside, he began to lick the blood off his finger.
“You’ve hurt yourself,” said Mara. “Here, let me have a look.” Taking a tissue from her trouser pocket, she stepped over toward him, reaching out and taking hold of his hand.
She pressed the tissue to the cut, dabbing the blood away so she could examine it.
Acutely uncomfortable, Dzaka submitted to her ministrations, all the while aware of the interest in him that she was radiating.
“You’ll live,” she said, smiling up at him, her touch on his hand becoming much lighter as she stroked the sensitive areas of his palm.
He snatched his hand back, moving away from her, aware his tail was flicking in agitation but unable to control it. “It’s fine, thanks, Mara,” he said. “I’ve got to get back to my work. Jack wants it as soon as possible.”
“Are you sure you won’t stay and help me?” she asked. “It can’t be much fun having Kitra following you about all the time. It really is an awful imposition on your good nature. Stay for a while. She’s bound to get fed up and go home eventually.”
“Ah. No thanks,” he said, backing off.
Almost at a run, he headed over to Jack’s work table. “Jack,” he said. “Sorry, but I’ve got to go now.”
“Go? Go where?” asked Jack, continuing to peer through the magnifying lens at the object he was cleaning.
“Away from here. Home.”
Jack looked up, surprised at the intensity in Dzaka’s voice. “Why?”
“Mara—and Kitra!” He leaned forward on Jack’s table. “I can’t stay here with both of them like this!”
“That’s what comes of being popular,” said Jack drily. “Don’t you feel flattered?”
“Ohhhh! You don’t understand!” he hissed, pushing himself away from the table. “They’re both trouble!”
“Then hadn’t you better decide on which one you want?” asked Jack, peering over his glasses again.
Dzaka gave a low roar of frustration and spun away from him, heading out of the cavern.
*
The upward sloping tunnel that led from the l
ower chamber was clear all the way through to the entrance to the second cavern complex. There, the stark white of the lighting units illuminated what had obviously been a living area large enough to house some thirty people. This area had only suffered a light rockfall or two, probably the result of seismic activity over the last millennium and a half.
The metal skeletons of beds, their fabrics long since decayed, lined the walls. Springs so rusted that they disintegrated if touched showed where mattresses had been. Beside them, remnants of wooden night lockers stood in various stages of dissolution. Here and there lay the odd personal item, waiting for an owner long since dead. A brush, a jar of hair beads, and broken cosmetic containers were just some of the belongings that had fallen abandoned on the floor. Whoever they’d been, they’d left hurriedly with not enough time to collect all their possessions.
At one end of the dormitory, a narrow passageway through to the next chamber was blocked by a metal door that was amazingly still intact after so long. The other end was partitioned off from ceiling to floor by panels of wood, large areas of which had rotted away.
“Maybe this is the place Kaid described seeing in one of his replays,” said Carrie, walking toward the partitions. “The one he listed as a training session.”
“Don’t touch them,” warned Kusac, hurrying over to her. “Some of the panels are better preserved than others.”
“I’m only going to look,” she said, peering through one of the larger gaps. “Looks like a kitchen area.” The disappointment in her voice was noticeable.
“It is,” said Kusac, gently taking her arm and drawing her back from the partition. “I think you’re right. This has the look of the place Kaid’s book describes. That door, though,” he said, flicking his ears toward the small corridor, “there has to be something important behind it for it to warrant such heavy security. That other replay of Kaid’s, the one about Rezac and Zashou forming their Leska Link, it was in another cavernous area, wasn’t it?”
As they approached the door, Carrie freed herself and walked a few steps ahead of him. Stopping in front of it, she examined the surface closely.
“Yes, it was. They were making notes—on paper, not comp pads, so they possibly didn’t have such advanced technology as Earth or Shola has now,” she said as she began to run her fingertips gently over the surface. “Or they no longer had access to it. Taking notes, compiling facts, waiting for results … I wonder. Could they have been running data through a computer? And if so, what kind of data?”
“And why were they here,” added Konis, joining them. This is the first time I’ve seen Carrie work, he sent to his son. Interesting. I can feel her doing something that resembles probing, but what exactly …
“It is probing,” said Carrie absently, unaware of the starts of surprise from the two males behind her. “They were hiding. Hiding from the Valtegans.”
It unnerves me when she does that, sent Konis. Even I can’t listen in to private links!
Her senses are extended while she’s working. She’s bound to pick up a lot more, replied Kusac.
“If you two stopped gossiping,” said Carrie, moving over to the rock wall at the side of the door, “you’d be able to help me get in here. I’m sure there’s a mechanism somewhere.” She began to search the surface of the wall, trying to find any crevices or loose pieces where a switch could be concealed.
She gave up after five minutes fruitless searching. “Dammit! I know there’s a way in somewhere around here!”
“Leave it for now, Carrie,” said Konis, reaching out to gently draw her away from the enigmatic door. “The way in will be found eventually. If it isn’t, then it will have to be forced.”
“It shouldn’t have to be forced! I know there’s a mechanism, if I could only remember where,” she said, pulling away from him to return to the doorway.
Kusac intercepted her this time. “No. You’ve spent long enough looking. We should be leaving now. They’ve orders not to start work until we do.”
As they began walking down the corridor back to the main chamber, high on the fortified walls of Stronghold, a gray-cloaked priest was standing with his Companion.
*
“You make it difficult for me to concentrate, Kha’Qwa,” said Lijou as she came within his cloak to escape the biting wind.
“You’ll manage,” she said, leaning her head against his shoulder. “You were the one who asked me to meet you here. All I’m doing is supplying an alibi, not seducing you.”
Lijou lowered his face till his cheek touched the top of her head. “Then since one of Ghezu’s guards is coming this way, perhaps we should pretend to be taking a few moments for ourselves,” he murmured gently in her ear before beginning to nuzzle it.
She sighed, relaxing her body against his and stretching her arms round his back and up onto his shoulders. “You never could act, Lijou,” she whispered as they heard the approaching footfall of Kaibah, one of Ghezu’s personal guards. Her face turned toward Lijou’s and she began to delicately nibble at his cheek and jawline, sensing through her empathic talent his reluctant response.
Eyes half closed, he was peripherally aware of the guard passing them and his hands instinctively tightened on her shoulders.
Kaibah stopped. “Afternoon, Guild Master,” he said. “Cold today, isn’t it?”
“Go chase a tree-rhudda, Kaibah,” growled Kha’Qwa, not bothering to turn round. “We didn’t come here looking for an audience.”
Lijou barely suppressed his grunt of surprise and interest as unseen, her hand slid through the opening of his robe and began to caress his thigh.
Her gesture had the desired effect on both males. Kaibah, seeing the expression on Lijou’s face, realized why they were there and as his ears lay flat in embarrassment, he began to back away hurriedly. As for Lijou …
“You utterly unrepentant she-jegget!” he hissed, trying to keep his voice low while surreptitiously trying to remove the hand that was determined to become more intimate.
“What’s wrong? You wanted us to take some time for ourselves,” she whispered.
“Yes, but not this! My reputation will be in shreds!”
“You mean you haven’t come up here before?” she asked, still managing to evade him. “In that case, it’ll enhance your reputation among the males,” she chuckled. “Not to mention some of the Sisters! Trust me.”
Lijou gave up and instead pulled her close, swinging her round so her back was to the keep wall. “Since this is what you want,” he began, but she stopped him.
“Now send your message,” she said, her face deadly serious.
“Now?”
“Now. You’ll find it easier when you have an incentive. Use that energy to send it. I’ve had lovers who were telepaths before. It worked for them.”
Not quite convinced, Lijou began to visualize Kusac, reaching out to find the unique pattern of his mind. Within moments, he’d not only located him but sent the warning.
*
In the passageway, Kusac staggered slightly, reaching out for the wall for support.
“What is it?” asked his father.
“Lijou,” said Carrie, steadying her mate.
“I’m fine,” said Kusac, standing upright again. “He warns us that Fyak has Kaid and that Ghezu’s put a contract out on Dzaka. He thinks Ghezu’s finally gone over the edge. We’re to watch out for him, and for Kaid being taken to Stronghold.”
“I’ll warn Nesul and the High Command,” said Konis. “We’ll have Ghezu monitored as best we can. I didn’t realize our Head Priest was capable of transmitting over such a distance.”
“He had help,” said Carrie, a small smile on her face as her hand reached for her mate’s. You didn’t tell him it all. Could Ghezu have Kaid already?
Lijou thinks it possible, because of the bracelet. It could be that Ghezu’s seen Kaid at Rhijudu and Fyak refused to hand him over. Lijou sent that Ghezu actually said Kaid was Fyak’s prisoner. Let’s not assume the worst.
We’ve got to do something, Kusac! At the moment we’re doing nothing!
There’s nothing we can do as yet! Kusac gripped her arm more tightly. If there was, I’d do it!
Then I’ll do what Noni suggested. Go to the Shrine. Maybe Vartra can help, since He seems determined to be involved in all our lives!
It wouldn’t do any harm, sent Kusac.
*
Back at Stronghold, Kha’Qwa grinned up at her lover. “See? Now you’ve had your alibi, we can go indoors, where we can continue this in comfort.”
Lijou returned her grin as the wind whipped at his cloak. “Not quite. I haven’t had my alibi yet.”
“I wasn’t exactly being serious,” she said, trying to push him aside. “It’s far too cold up here today!”
“You started it, Kha’Qwa,” he purred, running a hand through her short ginger hair. “Kaibah will tell everyone why we were up here, and you don’t want to make liars out of us, do you?”
“Lijou! I’ll freeze to death out here!”
“No, you won’t. I don’t intend us to be here for that long. Then we can do as you suggested; go into the warmth and continue this little encounter in comfort.”
“Did I really say you lacked imagination?” she murmured.
Chapter 15
He lay still, barely conscious, aware only of the fire that flickered through his limbs and tail before centering once more on his back. The slightest movement of his head exacerbated the throbbing behind his eyes. He could smell water nearby, and though his tongue was swollen with thirst, he knew he couldn’t reach it.
How long he lay like that, he’d no idea. He thought he heard voices at one point, but they meant nothing to him. Then, like the last time, their cold hands touched his body, pressing and probing at him. The hypoderm stung his neck and he knew relief as the numbness spread along nerves that were inflamed and raw. Not quickly enough though, as the dressing on his back was ripped off.
He moved then, flinching as the fresh pain coursed through him, too weak to even cry out. That was when he realized just how ill he was.
“Why wasn’t I called from the first?” a voice demanded. “I want him moved immediately to the infirmary. I can’t treat him here under these conditions!”
Fire Margins Page 57
